Promises
by Blood-Smeared Shuriken
Summary: GaaHina. [Promise me. Promise me that it will be you who holds the knife.] Not as depressing as it sounds.


Promises

A/N// This was inspired by a picture I saw on Deviantart. Sadly I can't remember who did it. It's a really cool picture with Gaara and Hinata back to back doing this kind of pinkie-promise thing and looking at each other out of the corner of their eyes and it was just pretty. I liked it a lot. I'll have to go back and check it out again so I can give the artist some credit. Once again it's a Gaara x Hinata fic. I'm obsessed.

First Promise – Battle

She stared at him as they stood within the shimmering barrier of sand, the battle still raging outside, scared Hyuga Princess with the pearlescent eyes and the warm heart. "W-what d-did you just say?" she whispered.

"Promise me," he rasped adamantly, standing before her, this enigmatic red-haired boy from the desert, shrouded in mystery and haunted by a pain that very few people could even understand. "Promise me that you'll stop me if I lose control. That you'll be the one to deal the death blow."

He offered her the kunai knife, the only one he had ever carried. He never usually bothered to carry weapons, relying on his sands to protect him. But this one he carried for a reason. "Hinata," he said softly. "If I lose control I will kill everyone. I will kill Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, your cousin, all your friends, that annoying blonde girl. You. And then I'll come back to myself once it is all over and there is no blood left to spill and I'll kill myself anyway. If I lose control I want it to be you who is the one to end it. Please, Hinata. I don't want it to be anyone else."

Hinata reached out and took the kunai knife in trembling fingers. Gaara twisted it so he was holding her hand as well, the cold knife between their pressed together palms. "Please," he said again. "Promise me."

Hinata lifted her chin. "I p-promise, Gaara-sama," she whispered.

"Just Gaara," he murmured. "I'm just Gaara now, to you. And thank you." He bent his head and brushed his lips quickly across hers, closing her fingers over the hilt of the kunai knife. Her eyes were stinging but she managed to smile tremulously at him as he pulled back. He gave her that soft smile that she alone ever saw, the smile he saved just for her.

The sands slid down and he walked away towards the fighting, shoulders straight, not a glance behind him as he prepared himself for the battle, prepared himself for the deadly struggle that would be going on beneath the surface of his mind, the far more important fight for his free will, the struggle for the tattered remains of his soul. Hinata watched him go, praying that she wouldn't have to use the cold steel knife that rested in her palm…

Second Promise – Reunion

She hadn't seen him in so long, the boy who had stolen her heart and then decided that he didn't actually want it any more. But that night, the night she became a Jounin, he was there.

She nearly swallowed her tongue when she saw him standing on the other side of the room holding a glass of wine and chatting idly with Kakashi as his eyes roved the room. He was obviously looking for someone.

Hinata ducked behind a corner before he saw her. She wasn't sure it was her he was looking for, but if it was she wasn't sure she wanted to be found. She still thought with misery of the note she'd found on her kitchen table the day he'd left, telling her that he had to go, that he was sorry but he had to get control of the Shukaku before he could be with her. He made her promise to wait for him.

She peeked her head around the corner and ended up looking at a black-clad chest. She slowly looked up to see amused turquoise eyes and a slightly quirky smile in a pale face. "Found you," Gaara said simply.

Third Promise – Vows

"It's my turn to ask you to promise me something, Gaara," Hinata said, her soft voice entirely stutter-free the way it always was when she talked to him now. Gaara smiled lazily down at the beautiful, caring girl that he was now lucky enough to be able to call his wife. "What?"

"Promise you'll love me forever?"

"I promise," he said immediately. There was no hesitation, no lingering over the decision. It was a promise he knew he would always keep, forever and always.


End file.
